May urges haste on EU security treaty

The prime minister also offered one big concession that might prove controversial at home. When cooperating with European agencies, Britain would “respect” the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, she said.

MUNICH, Germany — With Britain’s exit from the European Union looming, Prime Minister Theresa May is a woman in a hurry.

On Saturday, just a little more than a year before the process concludes, May put her strongest card on the table — Britain’s defense and police capabilities — and urged European partners to agree to a new security treaty.

Addressing a security conference in Munich, the prime minister said Britain had an “unconditional” commitment to European security that would not change after the country’s departure from the bloc.

Threats of cyberwarfare, terrorism and organized crime were European problems that demanded continued close cooperation on arrest warrants and intelligence sharing, she said.

“This cannot be a time when any of us allow competition between partners, rigid institutional restrictions or deep-seated ideology to inhibit our cooperation and jeopardize the security of our citizens,” she said.

May said she wanted the security pact signed fast, even before negotiators agreed on the exit deal. “We shouldn’t wait where we don’t need to,” she said.

“However, if the priority in the negotiations becomes avoiding any kind of new cooperation with a country outside the EU, then this political doctrine and ideology will have damaging real-world consequences for the security of all our people,” she said, including much more cumbersome extraditions and an end to data exchange through Europol.

The prime minister also offered one big concession that might prove controversial at home. When cooperating with European agencies, Britain would “respect” the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, she said. Hard-line advocates of Britain’s departure from the EU have argued that Britain should take back control of its laws and judicial system and no longer be beholden to the rulings of the European court.

It is the latest self-imposed red line that May has quietly crossed as Britain races against the clock to extricate itself from four decades of close cooperation with the 28- member bloc. She has conceded almost everything European negotiators have demanded in the first phase of talks, from a divorce settlement of about $55 billion to a transition period in which Britain will keep to EU rules even after it legally quits the bloc.

“Another red line has gone pink,” said Mark Leonard of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

But for all of Britain’s tortured wobbles in the negotiations, it has leverage on defense, and many paid close attention to May’s speech.

Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a pro-European think tank based in London, called it “serious and detailed,” noting May’s expertise on the subject as former home secretary.

Britain is the second-largest defense spender in NATO and one of the only members of the European Union to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense, as well as 0.7 percent of its GDP on development aid, May noted.

A member of the Five Eyes — an intelligence alliance among Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States — Britain also has very good intelligence to offer Europeans. If a security deal was not reached in a timely manner, May said in what some perceived as a thinly veiled threat, citizens of both Europe and Britain would be less safe than they are today.

Florence Gaub, deputy director of the European Union Institute for Security Studies, a research group, said May had a point.

“European fighters in ISIS don’t make any distinction between the U. K. and the Continent,” she said, referring to the Islamic State. “Brexit and the Channel don’t matter to them.”

Not everyone was convinced by May’s pitch.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, said it was wrong to try to mix security issues with the details of Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Once again, some said, Britain was asking for a special deal from the bloc, giving it more say in European affairs than any third country would normally have.

“They have not arrived in the 21st century,” Helmut Anheier, president of the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, said after listening to May’s speech. “This is latestage empire grandstanding.”

Britain has long been accused of wanting to enjoy all the privileges of the European Union without abiding by its rules. On defense, given the mutual dependence, London may just get somewhere.

Leonard said, “It’s the closest you can hope to get to having your cake and eating it, too” — once the stated aim of the British foreign minister, Boris Johnson.

Conference organizer Wolfgang Ischinger remarked after May’s speech that “things would be so much easier if you stayed” — drawing applause.

May quickly slapped down that idea.

“We are leaving the European Union,” she said to a quiet room. “There is no question of a second referendum or going back on that vote.”